NAND flash memory, as well as other types of non-volatile memories (“NVMs”), are commonly used for mass storage. For example, consumer electronics such as portable media players often include flash memory to store music, videos, and other media.
An NVM can include multiple bands, and each band can include multiple blocks. Over time, one or more blocks of an NVM may develop defects, which are generally not distributed evenly across the various bands. Thus, when a few bands of the NVM have a substantially greater number of defective blocks as compared to other bands, overall system performance can suffer.